Diego Pavia’s path to a roster spot took a sharp turn on June 9, 2026, when a projection from marked him as the odd man out in Baltimore’s quarterback room. The undrafted rookie quarterback is still in the fight for the QB3 job, but the forecast leaves Lamar Jackson and Tyler Huntley as the only passers on the 53-man roster.
That is the reason Pavia is being searched now. He was shown with Jackson and throwing a pass during Baltimore Ravens mandatory minicamp at Under Armour Performance Center in Owings Mills, Maryland, and the snapshot came as the club continued sorting out its depth behind the starter and backup. The quarterback battle also includes Joe Fagnano and Skyler Thompson, which gives Baltimore more names than clear openings.
Hensley’s projection matters because it strips the competition down to the math of roster building. If the Ravens carry only Jackson and Huntley, then Pavia, Fagnano and Thompson would all be fighting for a role that may not exist on the active list. For Pavia, that is a hard landing after a college career at Vanderbilt that ended with 3,539 passing yards, 29 passing touchdowns, 8 interceptions, 862 rushing yards and 10 rushing touchdowns, numbers that helped him finish second in Heisman Trophy voting behind Fernando Mendoza.
He also arrived with résumé points that are rare for an undrafted rookie. Pavia earned first-team All-American and SEC selections in 2025, and he is the first Heisman finalist to go undrafted in 12 years. At 5-foot-10, he does not fit the classic frame teams usually want at quarterback, but his production and mobility gave him a case that went beyond size.
That is where the friction sits. A player with that kind of college output and recognition is now being measured against a roster forecast that leaves him off the team entirely. Baltimore’s quarterback injuries last year made depth matter more, and that could keep the door open longer than a normal camp battle, but it does not change the basic structure of the decision: if Pavia does not crack the 53-man roster, the practice squad is his most realistic next stop, with the emergency quarterback role offering a thin but real path back.
For now, the question is not whether Pavia has flashed enough to stay in the conversation. It is whether Baltimore decides that his preseason value is enough to spend one of its few quarterback spots on him, or whether his best chance remains waiting on the practice squad for a call that could come only if the roster bends again.
